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Vestas Wind Systems reports earnings

Camera wire reports

Posted:
02/10/2016 02:02:10 PM MST

Updated:
02/10/2016 02:02:53 PM MST

Vestas Wind Systems officials released the company's 2015 full-year earnings results this week, revealing the company had garnered its highest ever net profit of 685 million euros, or the equivalent of $766 million. It also had its highest-ever order intake totaling, 8.9 gigawatts across 34 countries on five continents.

Vestas has been on a hiring binge in the past year to meet increasing orders for wind turbines North and Central America, and that means continued production of wind turbines at the company's U.S. manufacturing base in Windsor, Brighton and Pueblo. The Windsor and Brighton plants produce blades, a second Brighton plant produces nacelles (or the motors), and the Pueblo plant produces turbine towers.

The company attributes its 2015 gains to policy developments such as the Wind Energy Production Tax Credit renewal in the United States, the COP21 Paris Accord, which is an international agreement among several nations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and China and India targeting increased wind capacity in the future.

The production tax credit renewal in December will help the company stay on stable ground. The tax credit gives electricity generators a 23-cent-per-kilowatt-hour credit on their generation for 10 years, which works to reduce overall costs of installation. The credit was renewed in December for two years, with three-year plan to phase-out of the credit.

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